Berlinale #5: Four bizarre films

by Elisa Giudici

L'EMPIRE © Tessalit Productions

If I think about the typical film competing at Berlin, I imagine something quite dramatic, decidedly political, and sometimes rather heavy. This edition of the Berlinale has added the adjective "bizarre" to this profile of mine. Here are four films seen in these hours that deserve this adjective.

L’EMPIRE by Bruno Dumont
Let me preface this one: Dumont and I just don't see eye to eye. He might be the only French director whose work I can't seem to appreciate, despite my overall fondness for French cinema. Given this history and a rather late screening on a very heavy day, the recipe for disaster was served. However, one positive thing about L’Empire I can say: in hindsight, it made me reassess his previous film, France, which I saw at Cannes and detested...

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Cannes Diary #10: Au Revoir, Cannes!

Another round of applause, please, for Elisa Giudici for giving us such great on-the-ground Cannes coverage this year. She reviewed the entire Competition slate! Can you believe it? What follows are her last two reports, condensed into one - Editor

by Elisa Giudici

I will miss the French summer -- hot and breezy. Yes, it is time to say goodbye to the Cannes Film Festival. Already? Finally! A little bit of both. My first time here was incredible but I think I am quite close to the limit of my cinematic intake without compromising the ability to enjoy the films. After years of enviously reading reportage by friends and colleague, this was everything I thought it would be. I fear I was even spoiled. There were no infinite queues where I thought I might be shut out and (a little brag is coming, but please allow it) I was able to see the whole competition lineup despite having a yellow pass! Insanity.

It was amazing being able to write this diary every day and read the comments from such a passionate audience. I hope I was able to give you a little glimpe into the movies that are coming as well as the feeling of seeing them at this majestic Festival. It was all quite demanding (I covered the Festival for a couple of italian magazines, too) but I am incredibly happy as a completist that I never skipped a day's entry. A lot of these diary entries were written in the middle of the night or near dawn so a huge thank you to Nathaniel for the editing to make them comprehensible to you; After 2 AM my English tends to be even more convoluted than usual.

So final round. SEVEN movies! Ready?

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Cannes at Home: Day 10

by Cláudio Alves

The 2021 Cannes Film Festival is on its last days, and almost all Competition titles have premiered. The latest were new films by Apichatpong Weerasethakul Bruno Dumont and Nabil Ayouch. The Thai director's Memoria has already been met with raves by fans, though, as ever, his work continues to be unfit for all tastes. Some audiences aren't into slow-cinema. Dumont's France, however, got full-on boos, while Ayouch's Casablanca Beats was deemed a possible contender for the Palme d'Or. We'll know the jury's choices on Saturday. For now, let's indulge in cinematic reminiscence as we look back at these artist's previous triumphs. They include a poetic reverie complete with an interspecies sex scene, a funny serial killer movie, and a film that drove irate people to attack its cast…

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The Furniture: Taking Joan of Arc Out of Time

Our Production Design series by the brilliant Daniel Walber is finally back for another season. Click on the images to see them in magnified detail. - Editor

by Daniel Walber

Why make a new movie about Joan of Arc? What hasn’t been said? The first film about her was made in 1898 and there have been dozens since. Some of them are regarded among the best films ever made. Why bother?

A few years ago, Bruno Dumont chose to answer these questions with a heavy metal musical. Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc (2017) is thrillingly strange, anointing the dunes of Dumont’s beloved Pas-de-Calais with dancing nuns and sung revelation. The music lends an unearthly gravitas to Joan’s visions, similar to how Breaking the Waves (the opera) presents Bess’s faith in a very different light than Breaking the Waves (the movie). I’d have written about it, but there’s no furniture to speak of - the entire film takes place outdoors.

Not so with the 2019 sequel...

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The Furniture: Slack Bay's Giddy Grotesqueries

"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber, is our weekly series on Production Design. You can click on the images to see them in magnified detail.

“Look! Mussel-gatherers!” Isabelle Van Peteghem (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) shrieks. “How picturesque!”

Her deranged tone of voice, along with the confused faces of the mussel-gatherers, let you know that you’re watching a Bruno Dumont film. Slack Bay is a comedy of manners and hats, kidnapping and cannibalism. Set on the coast of Northern France in 1910, it’s a period piece with no shortage of surprises.

Initially, the film seems to be making a fairly straightforward point about tourism and class. André (Fabrice Luchini) and Isabelle Van Peteghem are nightmarishly enthusiastic. Aude (Juliette Binoche), André’s sister, is even worse. They all find everything terribly amusing, including the budding friendship between Aude’s daughter, Billie (Raph), and a local kid named Ma Loute (Brandon Lavieville). The interior of their home mimics the interiors of their heads, packed with dusty, fancy nonsense.

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